Montclair NJ General Store empowers, employs people with disabilities – NorthJersey.com

Wendy Lacey, whose General Store in Montclair employs people with disabilities and sells the artisan products they create, has a different problem than most business owners these days: Too many people clamoring for work.

Despite being “overstaffed,” she gets frequent calls from disabled people and their guardians asking about employment.

“It’s very sobering,” she said. “There’s such a dire need for employment in the disabled community.”

Lacey, a former business executive and mother of four, opened the store in 2017, when her daughter Evelyn, who has Down Syndrome, was 15, in part to to prepare her daughter for life after the “cocoon” of the Montclair public schools. 

She and her husband, Andrew, also wanted to help their daughter feel part of the Montclair community and contribute to it. Now an 18-year-old junior at MHS, Evelyn makes lavender sachets, headbands and T-shirts that are sold in the store.

In addition to penny candy, ice cream, snacks, books and housewares, the store carries products created by disabled entrepreneurs, such as art by Bergen County’s Andrew Weatherly, textiles by Philadelphia artists and cookies from the North Carolina company Reason to Bake.

“People with disabilities aren’t satisfied sitting on the sidelines,” Lacey said. “They don’t want to be victims; they want to be contributors.”

The General Store staff is a mix of disabled and neurotypical employees, so “people of different abilities meet and learn from each other in unexpected ways,” she said. “Sometimes people with disabilities mentor those without, which is very empowering.”

Like the staff ratio, the location of the store, across the street from Buzz Aldrin Middle School, is no accident. After the last bell every afternoon, students pour in to buy candy and snacks. “The kid see people of different abilities working together,” she said. “I’m trying to make those differently-abled faces look familiar, so people understand that this is what your community looks like.” 

Lacey’s goal is not to turn a profit but to be self-sustaining; earnings after expenses are channeled back into the business. It’s not necessary to be a nonprofit to help the community she said. “I think all businesses should hire people with disabilities.”

Similarly, she doesn’t employ volunteers. “I feel strongly that everyone should get paid,” she said. “This is not a pity party for those with disabilities; this is about people getting concrete job skills, feeling a sense of responsibility and making money.” 

Her business is the 3,000 square-foot building she owns in Upper Montclair, and it houses the store as well as a community space, speech therapist, movement center, special-needs attorney and other “mission partners” dedicated to serving the disabled. Tenants of the building, called Cornerstone, have reduced rents and share the mission of “empowering people of all abilities to be included as active participants in the vibrancy of Montclair.”

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“It’s really fun to see the synergies happen when these groups team up together,” she said. “Sometimes the speech therapist will bring a client down to the store to practice asking questions and other life skills in a real-life setting.” 

“This is not just about my kid, or kids in special ed,” Lacey said. “One in five Americans identify as having a disability at some point in their lives.”   

Evelyn turns 18 in June and Lacey is acutely aware that the transition from school to the real world is particularly fraught for parents of special needs children. 

“Even if you have great success in an inclusive education setting, once you hit 21 and age out of that structured environment, it can be like falling off a cliff,” she said. 

Recently, the Laceys donated $250,000 to Montclair State University’s Increasing Access to College (IAC) project to establish the University’s first comprehensive transition program and college certificate for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

The gift, they say, was inspired by their hopes for their daughter.  

“Our eyes have been opened to the value that people with disabilities add to their community and to what’s important in helping them have a fulfilling life,” she said.

Julia Martin is the 2021 recipient of the New Jersey Society for Professional Journalists’ David Carr award for her coverage of Montclair for NorthJersey.com.

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Email: jmartin@gannettnj.com

Twitter: @TheWriteJulia